A majority of Americans oppose President Donald Trump’s plan to replace the White House’s East Wing with a $300 million ballroom, according to a new poll released Thursday.
Fifty-six percent of Americans said they oppose the project, with just 28 percent expressing support for it, per the The Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll.
The survey found that the renovation enjoys significantly more support among Republicans than Democrats. Sixty-two percent of Republicans support it, while 88 percent of Democrats oppose the ballroom. Independents were more divided, with 17 percent supporting the project and 61 percent disapproving.
While Trump initially insisted the project would not interfere with the existing White House structure, the administration has now fully demolished the East Wing of the White House, historically home to the first lady’s office and other reception rooms. Trump has said the new 90,000-square-foot ballroom, which the White House expects to be done well before 2029, will host White House events for nearly 1,000 people.
The administration has solicited donations from several dozen high-profile Trump donors, including two Cabinet officials, multiple billionaire investors and some of the biggest tech and crypto companies in Silicon Valley to pay for the renovation. The White House has also promised to share how much money Trump is personally contributing to the project, a figure the administration has yet to release, but did not specify when it would do so.
The project has faced sharp criticism from Democratic lawmakers.
Trump also ousted six commissioners on Tuesday who sat on a panel responsible for advising on planning federal projects and memorials in Washington, including White House renovations.
Still, the White House has dismissed criticism of the project, with press secretary Karoline Leavitt maintaining that the ballroom will be “magnificent addition to the White House for many years to come.”
“I believe there’s a lot of fake outrage right now because nearly every single president who has lived in this beautiful White House behind me has made modernizations and renovations of their own,” Leavitt said in an interview with Fox News last week.
The Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll was conducted online Oct. 24-28, with a random sample of 2,725 adults. The margin of sampling error was plus or minus 1.9 percentage points, with a larger margin for subgroups.
